Ween's Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) Announces Debut Solo Album

When Ween swung by Vancouver on tour a year ago, it didn't go so well, and our review documents how the band and frontman Gene Ween fell apart on stage. Perhaps that explains why the singer, also known as Aaron Freeman, has turned his attention to releasing his first solo album. Entitled Marvelous Clouds, it's out April 10 via Partisan Records.

Curiously, the albums 13 tracks aren't originals, but rather are covers of Beat poet/songwriter Rod McKuen. According to a press release, Freeman uses McKuen's work to "articulate one of his most personal efforts to date." What's more, "The meticulously crafted and stunning result casts Freeman as you've never heard him and is sure to prompt a reappraisal of McKuen, who has lived privately and out of the public eye in recent decades."

The collection was produced by Ben Vaughn, who also helmed Ween's 1996 album 12 Golden Country Greats.

At the bottom of this page, you can see a trailer for the album. It isn't much to look at, but the 37-second clip does contain a snippet of the album track "Jean," which finds Freeman in an introspective mood with its stripped-down acoustic arrangement.